A new and original way of looking at the world | Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and...

Good Book, but Not a Flowing Read | Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness | Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

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	• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein Yale University Press, 2008 - 293 pages average customer review:based on 47 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book is awesome!

This is a terrific book. The authors cover terrain which has been explored recently in books such as "Predictably Irrational" and "Sway" -- loosely speaking, why we humans persistently engage in behavior patterns which do not benefit us in the long term. Their own research, at the University of Chicago, builds upon the work of Tversky and Kahneman in behavioral economics; the behavioral insights gained form the basis for public policy changes in a number of different areas.

The book provides a funny, engaging, remarkably clear exposition of the various factors which lead us to make poor decisions. This alone would make it worth reading. What makes it exceptional is that they actually suggest *remedies* that might help us save ourselves from our own flawed gut instincts. Indeed, they go one step further, making a convincing argument for incorporating these remedies as a part of public policy. The examples that they consider are directly relevant to decisions each of us faces routinely: choices that primarily affect our own welfare, like decisions about health and lifestyle, credit and money management, investing for retirement; and choices with broader societal implications, like those pertaining to environmental behavior, organ donation, charitable giving and community involvement. They use the term "libertarian paternalism" to characterize their public policy recommendations; don't allow the term to put you off - their suggestions really make a lot of sense.

"Nudge" is very well-written and extremely readable. I was impressed by the amount of useful and interesting material the authors managed to incorporate in just 250 pages. I highly recommend this book.

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A new and original way of looking at the world

This is an important book to read given that the authors are Obama's advisors. The authors are from University of Chicago, the school famous for libertarian Milton Friedman who was a favorite of Ronald Reagan. The authors introduce the concept of libertarian paternalism. They do not embrace a pure libertarian nor a left leaning pro-government solution to common problems we face today. My guess is that libertarian idealogues will find some of the ideas offensive.

There is considerable overlap with other books on behavioral economics and psychology such as:
Predicably Irrational by Ariely
Influence by Cialdini
Yes! by Goldstein et al
Whereas the above books were fun to read, Nudge gets dry after the first part.

The book takes a practical but boring turn when it starts tackling specific issues such as social security and healthcare. I found reading these parts boring and not written well. Nevertheless if you trudge through the book you may be rewarded with gaining insight into what an Obama Presidency may look in the future.

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Good Book, but Not a Flowing Read

This was an interesting book. It talked about how to structure choices to nudge people in the right direction concerning health, wealth, and happiness. The books lays a foundation for the discipline. The authors believe in freedom of choice, but also believe that organizations have the role of nudging people towards the best choices in life. The book highlights that people are typically lazy and not proactive. It made me think about ministry in the sense that few ministers actively plan for retirement. Congregations should automatically set up a retirement fund for them and put in a certain amount of money per month. The book is weighty and not the most enjoyable read. Some of the information was more common sense advice than radically changing ideas. To boil down the book, be proactive and put your savings and house payments on a automatic plan. Pretty much structure your life in an appropriate way and you will retire well. Use incentives because these are powerful pushes for companies and churches to guide people in the right direction.

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Interesting

This is an interesting book to read, with some decent ideas on how things come to happen, It reads a little dry at times but overall it is worth the time spent and does make one think of a differnet approach to persuasion and public influence.

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful ?choice architecture? can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take?from neither the left nor the right?on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.

(20080518)

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